Evaluation of Credibility
College tuition costs are rising as the years go on, but for what reason? In “Why is College So Expensive” an article published by Andrew Jensen on andrewjensen.net July of 2018. Jensen (according to his “about” column on his very own website), it states that he is a “business growth, efficiency, and marketing consultant.” But besides all of this, he is also a publisher on his very own website. In this specific article, Jensen states the basic possible reasons on why he believes college tuition is unaffordable. Jensen begins to explain that current and prospective college students simply do not understand how much college tuition truly costs, and only college graduates really understand. Many college students have to find their own way to pay for tuition, so how are they the ones who do not truly understand the amount of tuition they are really paying?
In Jensen’s website, his published articles include; How To’s, School Tuition, and many different types of opinion articles, all which can be found on his website under “articles.” However, the main article I will be focusing on is the discussion of college tuition in America and why it is so expensive. Jensen points out many great facts and his opinions seem to be very much valid from his overall work experience. However, he does not back up his claims with any supporting information. Due to the fact that it is also his own website, he has the ability to add anything he wants and cannot be forced to take it down because it is his and he owns the rights. In this article, Jensen does however make many interesting points that may or may not be true, no one can truly know because again, he does not provide any type of information to back up what he is discussing.
He continues to explain that in recent studies, the average college student graduates with roughly twenty-four thousand dollars worth of student debt. Also points out that Americans are in more debt due to students loans rather than credit card debt. Yes, this may all seem true and very easy to believe, but there is no supporting evidence in his article. No hyperlink to the exact study he was discussing or simply not even any statistics (that can be easily found on the internet). Following, Jensen lists and explains reasons as to why college is so expensive. This lists contains five different topics, including; The side effect of Federal student aid, college degree being perceived as a necessity, students are seen more as customers, peer pressure, and lastly the cost of college education.
Jensen provides many different types of reasons as to why he believes college is too much in costs, but no supporting detail. In his lists, he points out that Federal student aid “causes students to ignore the numbers in front of them” meaning that students do not know what they will actually be paying back in the future due ot the fact that it is covered for in the mean time. Specifically, Jensen states that “students are less concerned about the price tag.” What was interesting was thatJensen begins to explain that a college degree is technically not a “necessity.” He discussed that many students who go to college do not need a college education for professions one is trying to pursue, however he does not provide any job listings that do not need a college education. Jensen simply says in this column “To combat this problem, American students would need to seriously reevaluate their life paths and decide whether they truly need a college degree in order to pursue their desired career.” I found this very much interesting due to the fact that in today’s world, a college degree is needed to have a well paying job in most situations. However, it is possible for some of the people in America to get lucky and get a well paying profession without a degree.
In all, I can say that I agree with Jensen and his opinions for the most part. However, he is not crebible in any way and simply just states what he tknows or thinks he knows. Yes, he has a very strong background and a well-listed amount of job experience, but this article shows no proof of credibility in anyway. This can easily be credible if Jensen provided background information and sources to help prove his points on this issue. But, in this article he simply does not.